Most shredded potatoes find themselves nestled inside latkes and hashbrowns. But if you want to get islandy (or Latin American), something else gets thrown into the mix -- black beans.

Continue reading Potato and Black Bean Pancakes

If there was one thing that challenged Key West's proliferation of key lime pies, it was rum cakes. For a while, the Tortuga Rum Company had a little shop on the island -- not only offering a proliferation of cakes to purchase, but every flavor waiting in bins to sample. It was, simply, the most wonderful way to pick sweets to buy.

That store is no longer there, but the cakes continue to haunt shelves across the island. Unfortunately, they're not easy to come by in most other areas, unless you've got a good deal of cash saved up to order the $30-plus large cake online.

That means we must do our best to replicate, and at least one recipe gets close -- Recipe Zaar's Almost Tortuga Rum Cake.

Find out how after the jump.

Continue reading Capturing the Flavor of Tortuga Rum Cake

Continue reading A Taste of Cuba with Ginger Sherried Roasted Pork

Skyr isn't carried in too many American stores, but the Icelandic yogurt definitely has its fans. It is thicker than conventional yogurt, largely because it is strained, much like Greek yogurt. You are most likely to be familiar with the yogurt if it is carried at your local Whole Foods, where it is packaged into small containers and flavored like conventional yogurts, with berries, vanilla, etc. Despite the generally positive reaction from consumers, Whole Foods no longer promotes the fact that they carry Skyr, or any other Icelandic products, because of the company's offical policy of dissapproval for Iceland resuming commercial whaling last year.

The average consumer, perhaps the average Skyr fan, in the US isn't aware of the whaling issue and because Whole Foods hasn't promoted it, they're not likely to - especially because Whole Foods is planning to stock more Icelandic products this spring. Whole Foods will be carrying Nói Síríus chocolate easter eggs in approximately 70 stores. To entice WF to stock the eggs, Nói Síríus seems to have offered them at almost no cost, as the marketing director of the chocolate company said "There are no profits involved, this is first and foremost a sales experiment." More will be imported next year if they prove popular. Whether Whole Foods will be promoting them now, or in future, is still unknown, though it certainly seems like it would be a good business strategy to promote the products you carry if you're going to carry them at all.

Bilk is 30% milk and took six months to develop with the help of a local brewer. The production process is much like that of regular beer and the resulting brew "apart from a slight milky scent looks and tastes like ordinary beer." It is currently being produced in limited quantities and is available via mail order, but Nakahara says that he has gotten so much media attention that he is totally out of stock for the moment. Despite this, bilk's success won't be assured until the novelty wears off and Nakahara can find out whether people will continue to buy the product.

If this all seems a bit unfair, as it is more one-sided than the US version of Valentine's, not to worry. On March 14th, the Japanese celebrate "White Day" as in reciprocation for Valentine's Day, where men buy gifts, from chocolates to expensive jewelry, as a sign of affection

Chef Alan Wong was the guest judge on last week's episode of Top Chef and during the show, he prepared food from a traditional Hawaiian luau for the contestants to try. It was the first time that some of them had had Hawaiian food and they certainly got to taste the creations of a master chef. Chef Wong has one of the best restaurants in Hawaii and was the recipient of a James Beard Award a few years back. He specialiazes not only in Hawaiian cooking and flavors, but on fusing those traditions with the techniques and ingredients from Asia, Europe and Latin America.

Alan Wong's New Wave Luau: Recipes from Honolulu's Award-Winning Chef has a large collection of many of his top dishes, both traditional and innovative. The recipes, as they are the work of a very experienced chef, can be complex, but many are very accessible to the home chef (particularly some of the appetizers and desserts) and there are plenty of beautiful photographs to keep you motivated to work. When followed through, the results are well worth it and you can get an idea of what the would-be Top Chefs experienced on their island lunch before the finale. Dishes include Kalua Pig (pit-roasted!), Li Hing Mui Chutney, Five Spice Risotto, Curried Chicken Lumpia with Mango Salad, Grilled Lamb Chops with Coconut Macadamia Crust, Guava Sorbet and Lilikoi Brulee.

The end of the season for a show like Bravo's Top Chef is always bittersweet. Like a good chocolate, you want to finish it off, but you also sort of wish that it could go on. Come to think of it, this season might be more like the "finishing off" chocolate, since there has been so much drama that it will almost be a relief to see it end. Almost.

Last night was the first part of the show's season finale and it started off by giving viewers a sneak peek into what the chefs have been doing for the past few months during the break between the main taping and the filming of the finale. Marcel and Sam spent the time practicing their technique, with Marcel trying to learn as much as possible about new ingredients and presentations and Sam learning about pastry, which he felt was a weak spot in his training. Elia and Ilan each spent time learning about Hawaiian food, but neither actively tried to learn as much new information as their competitors.

Continue reading Top Chef 2, finale part 1 recap

Administrators say that the purpose of this test is to show respect for "the Japanese spirit" but, in light of the decline of chopstick use among Japanese children, it also seems like a rather unusual way to make sure everyone has good table manners.

The Four Seasons in Jakarta, Indonesia has recently introduced one of the most expensive hamburgers in the world. The burger costs 1 million rupiah, which is approximately $110, or roughly twice the monthly minimum wage in the country! Served with a side of french fries, the hamburger is made of Kobe beef, foie gras, Portobello mushrooms and Korean Pears. The pears are known for the sweet taste and juiciness, but even with all the press that this burger has received, it isn't clear how the pear is incorporated into the final product.

One of the chefs from the hotel confirmed the reason that the burger is so expensive is that that the hotel "import[s] all the materials, and they are high quality." In the last month, the hotel has sold 20 burgers.

Estik, a restaurant in Madrid, Spain, also claims a burger in the same price range. Their kobe burger is €85.

To renew interest, brewers are turning more and more toward premium sakes and cutting-edge ad campaigns, not unlike the ones commonly seen for beer or luxury spirits, to attract younger drinkers to their products. They don't want the trendsetters of the nation to see sake as "what grandma and grandpa drink" or as "what your boss forces you to drink in a smoky pub in a sticky glass." In pursuit of hipness, they are also touting the drink as being low in calories and a good stress reliever.

The Big Island City Council in Hawaii has just passed a resolution to require coffee sellers to use more Kona Coffee in their "Kona coffee blends." Currently, the required minimum amount for a coffee to be labeled with the Kona blend term is only 10% of the beans. The new resolution ups the amount to 75% - an increase the growers and officials say is necessary to protect the Kona coffee name and reputation, as well as the financial well-being of the growers. They borrowed the 75% standard from California wine growers, who require that 75% of the grapes used in a wine to come from California grapes.

Proponents of the change, which passed through the council in a unanimous vote, say that not only will this protect the (wee deserved) reputation of Kona coffee as a luxury product, but it will ultimately prove to be better for consumers, who will know with certainty what they are paying for when they buy a Kona Blend and won't end up overpaying for a substandard product that bears the region's name.

Continue reading Flying first class gets you Trader Vic